College Sports Blog

Action: Texas Tech announces that men’s basketball coach Billy Gillispie has resigned, citing health reasons. He will be paid through April 2013 with associate coach Chris Walker continuing to handle day-to-day operations until an interim coach is named for 2012-13.

Reaction: Thursday’s late afternoon events only made things official. Ever since ESPN first broke the news of Billy Gillispie allegedly mistreating players and exceeding time limits in practice, the end game was pretty clear. BCG was not going to survive in Lubbock. This resolves a messy situation as well as it can be done. Gillispie saves a small piece of his reputation by resigning rather than waiting to be fired. Tech gets to move on with a men’s basketball program that needs plenty of work. For Gillispie, this represents an amazingly steep fall. As late as 2008-09, he was in the second of two seasons at Kentucky, the premier head coaching job in college basketball. Now, he’s essentially done, with uncertain health and prospects. Who takes a chance on him now? Maybe some junior college or an NAIA school. It’s still hard to fathom. For all his faults and demons, and apparently there were many, Gillispie is still revered in College Station for making A&M basketball relevant. Those old-school methods (garbage cans on the court, anyone?) didn’t play well at Kentucky and seem to dissolve into an exaggerated caricature in Lubbock, based on some pretty shocking reporting by ESPN and CBS Sports. If a fraction of the reports were true, Gillispie had to go. The reports of high-blood pressure, hospitalization, a trip to the Mayo Clinic and quick return turned into a soap opera. Apparently, athletic director Kirby Hocutt got the meeting he wanted a couple weeks ago with Gillispie. For Hocutt, Gillispie was his first hire and one for which he’ll take criticism. At the same time, plenty of fans and media folks (me included) thought Gillispie was worth the risk for all the baggage, that he could do at Tech what he did at UTEP and A&M. Hocutt saw the same possibilities. Instead, things went off the rails in slightly more than one season. The hire was a gamble that brought more risk than anyone expected. Now Hocutt needs to find someone who can turn Tech around and heal the fissures in the program? Names like former New Mexico State coach Reggie Theus and Baylor assistant Grant McCasland, who once served under James Dickey at Tech, have surfaced. But Walker might be the best choice short-term to hold things together for one season. Tech needs to make sure the next hire brings more stability and far less drama.